There are more compact cars (4*10 = 40) compared to trucks (2*10 = 20); however, the pictogram might make it appear that there are more trucks because the individual truck icon is larger compared to an individual compact car icon.

To anyone giving this image a quick glance, they may erroneously conclude that there are more trucks since their eye would notice the trucks first. Also, the person might think there are more trucks because bigger sizes tend to correspond to more proportion.

In real life, a truck is larger than a compact car, but the icons need to be the same size to have the figure not be misleading.

A very similar issue happens with the mid-size cars vs the compact cars as well. The three mid-size car icons span the same total width as the compact cars do, indicating that a reader might mistakenly conclude that there are the same number of mid-size cars compared to compact ones (when that's not true either).

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2 years ago